When Dominick “Dom” DiNapoli was a baby, his mother fed him pastry when he cried, and, in church, a friend would give him Hershey’s chocolate bars. Now grown, a stocky Dom comforts his hysterical aunt at the funeral of her thirty-nine-year-old son, Salvatore. The sight of Salvatore in his open casket overwhelms Dom’s sister, Antoinette Asano. As Dom comforts Antoinette, they reminisce about how Salvatore loved to eat. Antoinette then informs her brother that she has made him an appointment to see Dr. Schwartzman, a diet specialist. Later, as Dom walks to work, he longingly watches Lydia, a shapely blonde, cleaning the windows of her antique shop. At the card shop where Dom and Antoinette work, he assists Mrs. Goodman, who suggests that Dom join “Chubby Checkers,” a diet company that helped her lose weight. When Antoinette arrives to work late, she yells at Dom for missing his doctor’s appointment. Dom dances around the store with Antoinette to prove he is in good health, but he is quickly winded from the effort and promises to see the doctor. Later at Dr. Schwartzman’s office, Dom is weighed, poked, stuck with needles and observed on a treadmill. As a nurse recites a long list of food that Dom must omit from his diet, his eyes well up with tears. At dinner, Dom eats broiled chicken and kale while his brother Frankie eats lasagna. When Dom walks to work, he again stares at Lydia polishing the front door of her store but passes by without a word. Dom arrives home with a birthday cake for his nephew, Anthony, but when Antoinette opens the box, she discovers that Dom has already eaten a big slice of cake, and has a tantrum. One day, Lydia visits the card shop to order wrapping paper for her store. When Dom offers her a snack, she refuses because she has a family history of diabetes. He confesses that he is not careful about what he eats. Later, Dom brings the rolls of wrapping paper to Lydia’s store, and they find they have a lot in common. She is part Italian, they both have younger brothers named Frankie, and deceased parents. Dom joins Chubby Checkers and padlocks the kitchen cabinets at home, instructing Frankie never to give him the keys. He shows Frankie the telephone numbers of his “checkers” and insists that Frankie call them if he goes on a binge. At night, Dom cannot sleep, so he turns on the television and sees food on every channel. He becomes insatiably hungry and points a gun at Frankie’s face, demanding the keys to the kitchen cabinets. When Frankie realizes the gun is Anthony’s toy, Dom grabs a large kitchen knife and threatens him. After Frankie prays for his life, Dom drops the knife and apologizes, while Frankie calls Dom’s “checkers,” Sonny LoPilada and Oscar Lapidus. Dom tells Sonny and Oscar that he was too afraid to ask Lydia for a date so he consumed a whole pizza instead, and feels terribly guilty. Before long, the men recount their favorite foods, while sipping hot water with lemon. Soon, Dom wants honey, but Frankie refuses to unlock the cabinets. However, Sonny rips the doors off the cabinets, and the men organize an impromptu party. Later, Frankie informs Antoinette that Dom and his checkers have eaten everything in sight. Antoinette arrives with Lydia to appraise Dom and Frankie’s antiques. Dom is embarrassed when Lydia sees him in bed wearing his pajamas, but she is unfazed. Lydia gives him a get-well gift and he invites her to the St. Anthony’s Church bazaar. Later, they go on dates to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park and explore the streets of New York City. Over time, Dom loses weight to the point that he notices his clothes are baggy while he dresses in preparation of proposing to Lydia over dinner. Unable to find something to wear that fits properly, he becomes late for his big date. When he calls to inform Lydia, he cannot find her and begins to worry. He contacts the restaurant and the police, but then agrees to pick up Chinese food for Antoinette’s card players. However, he is so upset that he eats all the food before he returns home. When Dom apologizes to Antoinette, she tells him that he has a sickness. Speaking to his mother’s photograph on the mantel, Dom blames her for turning him into a fat man. He tells her that he is a forty-year-old fatso, incapable of being anything else. The phone rings and Dom learns from Lydia that she has gone to Boston, Massachusetts, to be with her brother, who chopped off a finger in an accident. Dom travels to Boston to be with Lydia, where she informs Dom that her brother will recover. As they admire the babies in the maternity ward of the hospital, Lydia agrees to marry Dom.